What I'm Thankful For This Thanksgiving

We've hit another Thanksgiving here at The Daily Norseman, and as always we have a great deal to be thankful for. Allow me to run them down in no particular order.

First off, I'm thankful that even in the chaos of a major move, I'm still getting the opportunity to spend the holidays with my family in the Great White North for the first time in a long time. The turkey is in the oven, the pumpkin pies are done, and the crescent rolls are ready to go. (And no, there is no more underrated Thanksgiving side dish than crescent rolls.) So, my wife and I will be sitting down for an amazing feast that will put us into a food coma while we're watching enough football to put ourselves into a sports coma.

With that in mind, I'm also thankful for all of the men and women that are currently overseas and can't be with their families on this day. No matter what far-flung corner of the Earth they might be in, they will be in the thoughts and prayers of many of their fellow citizens. While you're celebrating today, please take a moment to remember them as well.

I'm incredibly thankful for the folks at SB Nation that, about 6 1/2 years ago, decided to hand the keys to their Minnesota Vikings website to some guy with no real, formal writing experience in order to bring coverage of the Vikings to the masses out there in interweb land. Over that time, we've done a lot. . .we've been through a lot. . .and we still have plenty more to go.

I'm every bit as thankful for all of you out there that have turned this site into the place to go for Minnesota Vikings news and discussion. Yes, things have been a bit rough lately with the re-design and stuff, but this community will continue to persevere like it always has. Without all of you, we're just a bunch of people writing things to entertain ourselves. . .and, really, what fun would that be?

I also need to give thanks for the incredible staff that I've somehow managed to surround myself with over the past few years. From all of the members of the current staff (Ted Glover, Eric Thompson, Skol Girl, Kyle Segall, Mark, and Arif Hasan) to those that have been contributors in the past (such as Andrew Kneeland and Anthony Chergosky), they've played a tremendous role in this site's progress over the past couple of years, and will continue to do so in the future.

On the football side of things, I'm thankful that the lawmakers of the state of Minnesota saw clear to giving the go-ahead for a new stadium for our favorite football team, ensuring that they will remain the Minnesota Vikings until most of us are either gone or too old to give a damn about their next stadium. (As a point of reference, if the new stadium opens in 2016 and the Vikings have a 30-year lease, yours truly will be on the verge of 70 years old the next time anyone in Minnesota has to go through stadium drama again.) We had a whole lot of fun. . .at least, I thought it was fun. . .during the stadium debates this spring, to be sure. However, as much fun as it was, I think we're all happy that we don't have to go through it again any time soon.

I'm thankful that we, as Minnesota Vikings fans, have been blessed with the ability to watch a once in a generation talent like Adrian Peterson every Sunday afternoon. We've seen a lot of great talent come through Minnesota over the years, but Peterson is truly something special. He was before his knee injury, and the way he's come back from it has been so impressive that it adds to his legend even more. Hopefully he can continue his current pace, and I think we're all happy that he's going to be a member of this team for a very long time to come.

There are a lot of other things to be thankful for as well, but this is where I turn things over to you folks to express the things that you're thankful for on this day. We'll have a couple of other things coming over the course of the day, but overall it's going to be kind of slow. Enjoy the holiday, folks!